


The Mirror

by thegeminisage



Category: Novakcest
Genre: Gen, Hell, Mirrors, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 06:31:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegeminisage/pseuds/thegeminisage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the only way he can see his brother's face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mirror

**Author's Note:**

  * For [callowyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/callowyn/gifts).



> Set after Jacob goes to Hell. Serious warnings for gore/body horror.

Jimmy stares at himself in the cracked mirror, because this is the only way he can see his brother's face. His clothes are covered in filth and blood and his skin itches where they're stuck to him. The dirt is from burying Jacob's body. He can't remember where the blood came from.

He's not surprised that he could hurt himself without noticing. What's a little lost blood when Jacob is in the ground and Jimmy put him there? He strips, searching for the wound, until he's naked in front of the mirror. But there's nothing there, no cut, no mark. He's clean.

The windowpanes rattle against the wind. It's too cold to sleep this way. Shivering, he pulls on a new set of clothes, and he's about to fall into bed when he catches sight of himself again, multiplied by two only because the thing he's looking at is broken. There's blood seeping across his stomach. Jimmy freezes in place until a distant crack of thunder makes him jump. He pulls off his clothes again because this can't be his blood, all his hurting is on the inside—

But it's just his body again, trembling and alone and unharmed.

He's so cold but nothing stays clean. The clothes pile up behind him, stinking bloodied rags that slowly block out what meager light seeps through the window. The mirror reflects a man gone mad, running frantic hands over his body and then seeing again the dirt and blood, feeling the wet warmth dripping down his chest. It's not just the clothes, it's on him, on him—

This time Jimmy waits before he pulls his shirt off. He can feel the blood, the gashes where the hellhounds tore his brother's body open. Bugs itch across his skin, gnawing at the already-rotten parts of him. He closes his eyes and feels six feet of earth pressing down.

He's shaking so violently his teeth are chattering. He breathes and it tastes like dust. It feels so real that it must be true; Jimmy's finally managed to take his share. Slowly, so slowly, he looks up.

His reflection is already looking at him.

Jacob's eyes have gone the color of blood and fire. The demon opens his mouth and screams. And Jimmy reaches for him anyway, because Jacob is right there, Jimmy could pull him out in a heartbeat, were it not for all this grave dirt weighing him down.

Jacob lunges forward, shattering the glass, and the shards bury themselves where hellhounds' teeth belong because they've always got to mirror each other, they've always got to match, and it's no more than Jimmy deserves. "Jacob," bursts out of him in a sob and he staggers backwards, "Jacob," but Jacob's in Hell and if this is what it takes to get him out then so be it. Jimmy looks down and his skin is completely whole.

Then the frame of the shattered mirror swings open like a door, and Jimmy's staring at two glowing red eyes against the silhouette of his wife's corpse. The demon grabs him around the neck and drags him in—

—and then he wakes, covered in a clammy sweat, grasping for someone who’s not there. The motel room is empty. The mirror has long since been covered by a clean white sheet, no way for a soul to get trapped inside it, except Jimmy's still alive and so Jacob is trapped anyway.

The door bangs open.

"Get up," says Meg, in her own empty body. "We've got work to do."

**Author's Note:**

> I had a dream, and Cally told me to make it a fic. This is ALL HER FAULT.


End file.
